Former UFC champion Daniel Cormier sympathizes with bantamweight contender Umar Nurmagomedov’s struggle to secure a title shot. Despite being the #2 ranked fighter in the division, Umar has been repeatedly denied by champ Merab Dvalishvili, who calls the Russian a nepo baby. DC doesn’t think Umar is one.
Cormier believes Umar is in a situation similar to what Islam Makhachev found himself in when the top fighters in the lightweight division weren’t too keen to fight him. This despite Islam convincingly defeating everyone the UFC matched up with him.
In an episode of the Good Guy/Bad Guy show, Cormier insisted that surnames won’t earn title shots.
“It really is like Islam, do you remember the problems Islam had fighting inside of the top 5, before he got a championship opportunity? It feels like very similar to Umar…. It can’t be the name that’s earning this championship opportunity.”
Both Cormier and Chael Sonnen agreed that the OG Nurmagomedov, Khabib, never used his name to get himself in a comfortable position. Umar, and the other Team Khabib fighters also carry the same level of integrity.
Sonnen shot down Dvalishvili’s claim, saying that Team Khabib had never pulled the nepo card. They have always sent in their best fighter when they were truly at the top of their game.
“That team has never pulled that card,” elaborated Sonnen. “That team, when they make their arguments, they do have a system to make the arguments. They look at records, they look at rankings, they look at what their guy has done vs. what the competition has done and once they decide for the integrity of the sport and the purity of this game, I truly am deserving that’s the only time they ever step up.”
Umar has put in the hard work and come up the ranks like a warhorse would. That has fuelled the notion that Davlishvili is indeed ducking the Young Eagle. Merab, after all, is offering everyone else — from Sean O’Malley to Petr Yan — a title shot, but not Umar.
The former champion O’Malley, however, is backing Umar.
O’Malley claims Merab is afraid of Umar
Making a recovery from hip surgery, O’Malley is patiently watching the curious set of events unfolding in the bantamweight division. Following his win at UFC Macau, bantamweight champion Dvalishvili called out Yan to a fight. He even posted a cringe video while doing so.
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In an episode of the TimboSugarShow, O’Malley agreed to the common sentiment that Merab was indeed dodging Umar.
“Merab is absolutely s*itting himself terrified of Umar, I mean he doesn’t want to fight Umar. Now he’s saying he wants to fight Petr,” said O’Malley.
Davlishvili, meanwhile, has claimed that the main reason why he is not accepting the Umar fight is because the Russian has been ‘disrespectful’ toward him.
The champ seems to have forgotten that in the fight business, the best way to deal with disrespectful behavior is to hand a lesson inside the octagon. Then again, Davlishvili is probably not sure if he would be able to teach Umar manners in a matchup.
